This invention relates to a versatile gripper for an industrial robot that can also be used as a stand alone device for fixturing parts in the process of manufacturing, transporting, assembly, or inspection.
In recent years the use of robots have shown large productivity increases and is expected to continue to do so at an accelerating rate in the forseeable future. The major applications for industrial robots today are for welding, painting, and simple parts transferring. However, the greatest potential for gains in productivity lies in the areas of assembly, inspection and complex material handling. The large majority of these productivity increases have not been tapped because these tasks require versatile and/or programmable end effectors. The current technology allows programmable motion but does not allow programmable grasping of objects with accurate and predictable stable states of the objects to be grasped relative to the gripping device. The greatest productivity gains by industrial robots will not be realized without fundamental advances in end effector technology.